Denim garments such as slacks, jackets and skirts are considered by many to be more fashionable once they have attained a faded, worn appearance. Accordingly, denim fabrics and garments are frequently subjected to a bleaching procedure during their manufacture to give them a bleached, superbleached, rifled or whitewashed appearance. While such prebleached goods are a very marketable product, the bleaching procedures conventionally employed are relatively labor intensive, which adds significantly to the cost of the bleaching process. Also, the conventional bleaching procedures can produce undesirably high levels of second quality goods, due primarily to streaks in the goods.
Most streaks occur along the fold lines of garments and fabrics which have been stiffened with starch sizing. At these folds, the stiffness of the sized fabric apparently spreads out the individual fibers of the fabric, subjecting these fibers to greater bleaching action. When a high quality, uniform prebleached appearance is desired, some special procedure must be employed to minimize streaking. A typical procedure is as follows: (a) garments are turned inside out to break fold lines; (b) the garments are placed in a laundry machine and desized; (c) the garments are removed from the machine and turned right-side out; (d) the garments are placed back in the laundry machine and bleached. The need for turning the garment inside out and then right-side out obviously both slows this process and adds significant labor costs. Moreover, a significant number of bleached garments will be unacceptable, even under this careful and elaborate procedure, when quality control standards are high and few streaks are tolerated. Where less rigorous quality control standards are imposed--as may be the case when some streaking is considered stylish--garments need not be turned and returned prior to bleaching. Even with this simplified procedure, it is still, nevertheless, generally necessary to desize the garment prior to bleaching, to prevent very pronounced streaks from appearing.
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a bleaching process which imparts a uniform prebleached appearance to garments, especially denim garments. An additional object is to provide a bleaching process which provides aesthetically pleasing surface bleaching styling effects. Still another object is to provide a bleaching process which eliminates the need for turning and returning garments so that the efficiency of the bleaching process is increased. A still further object is to provide a bleaching process for denim goods which, if desired, will produce goods having an acceptable faded appearance without even the need for desizing the goods prior to bleaching.